* SCENE I.

Public square near Altorf. In the hinterground to the right the Fortress Keep of Uri with the scaffold still standing as in the third scene of the first act; to the left a view out into many mountains, upon all of which signal fires burn. It is just the break of day, bells resound from various distances. RUODI, KUONI, WERNI, MASTER STONEMASON and many other countrymen, also women and children.

* SCENE II.

Entrance to TELL'S house. A fire burns on the hearth. The door standing

open shows into the outside. HEDWIG. WALTER and WILHELM.

* SCENE III. The Final Scene

PARRICIDA goes toward TELL with an hasty movement, but the latter beckons him with the hand and goes. When both have left to different sides, the scene changes and one sees in the whole valley bottom in front of TELL'S dwelling, along with the hills, which enclose it, occupied by countrymen, who are grouped as a whole. Others are coming over a high bridge, which leads over the Schachen. WALTER FURST with both boys, MELCHTAL and STAUFFACHER come forward, others press after them; as TELL steps out, all receive him with loud jubilation.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------

* SCENE I.

Public square near Altorf. In the hinterground to the right the Fortress Keep of Uri with the scaffold still standing as in the third scene of the first act; to the left a view out into many mountains, upon all of which signal fires burn. It is just the break of day, bells resound from various distances. RUODI, KUONI, WERNI, MASTER STONEMASON and many other countrymen, also women and children.

RUODI: See you the fire signals on the mountains?

STONEMASON: Hear you the bells above the forest there?

RUODI: The foe is put to flight.

STONEMASON: The fortresses are captured.

RUODI: And we in Canton Uri still endure
The tyrant's castle on our native soil?
Are we the last, who do declare we're free?

STONEMASON: This yoke shall stand, which was to force us down?

Up, tear it down!

ALL: Tear't down! Tear't down! Tear't down!

RUODI: Where is the Steer of Uri?

STEER OF URI: Here. What shall I?

RUODI: Climb up the tower, blow into your horn,

That it resound afar among the mountains,

And every echo in the rocky clefts

Awakening, call all the mountain men

Together quickly.

(STEER OF URI exits.)

(WALTER FURST enters.)

WALTER FURST: Hold! Friends! Hold!

We still Lack information, as to what hath happened

In Unterwald and Schwyz. Let's first await

The messengers.

RUODI: Why should we wait?

The tyrant Is dead, the day of freedom hath appeared.

STONEMASON: Are not these flaming messengers enough,

Which burn on every mountain top around?

RUODI: Come all, come all, take hold, ye men and women!

Break up the scaffold! Pull the arches down!

Tear down the walls!

No stone stand on another.

STONEMASON: Companions come!

We have constructed it,

We know how to destroy it.

ALL: Come! tear't down.

(They fall upon the structure from all sides.)

WALTER FURST: It's underway.

I cannot stop them now.

(MELCHTAL and BAUMGARTEN enter.)

MELCHTAL: What?

Stands the fortress still and Sarnen lies

In ashes and the Rossberg's broken down?

WALTER FURST: Is that you, Melchtal?

Do you bring us freedom? Speak!

Have the Cantons all been cleansed o' th' foe?

MELCHTAL (embraces him):

We've swept them from the soil.

Rejoice, old father!

Now at this very moment, as we talk,

There is no tyrant left in Switzerland.

WALTER FURST: O speak, how came the forts into your power?

MELCHTAL: Rudenz it was, who took the fort at

Sarnen with manly and courageous acts of daring,

The Rossberg had I climbed the night before. --

But hear, what then occurred. As we the fort

O' th' foe devoid, with joy now set on fire,

The crackling flames already rose to th' heaven,

When Diethelm, Gessler's boy, rushed out toward us

And cried, the Bruneck woman burns to death.

WALTER FURST: O righteous God!

(One hears the beams of the scaffold fall.)

MELCHTAL: Twas she herself, was locked

Up here in secret on the Gov'rnor's bidding.

In frenzy Rudenz rose -- for we already

Had heard the beams, the stout supports collapse,

And from the midst of smoke the piteous cry --

Of the unhappy woman.

WALTER FURST: She's been rescued?

MELCHTAL: What counted then was swiftness and resolve! --

Had he been nothing but our nobleman,

We would indeed have cherished our own lives,

But he was our confederate, and Berta

Esteemed the people -- So we staked our lives

In confidence, and rushed into the fire.

WALTER FURST: Hath she been rescued?

MELCHTAL: She hath. Rudenz and I,

We carried her we two from out the flames,

And timber fell behind us with a crash. --

And now, when she discerned that she'd been rescued,

Her eyes rose up unto the heaven's light,

The Baron threw himself upon my heart,

And silently a compact was now sworn,

That firmly hardened in the fire's glow

Will persevere through every test of fate --

WALTER FURST: Where is the Landenberg?

MELCHTAL: Across the Brunig.

No fault of mine it was, that he who blinded

My father should escape with his own sight.

Pursued I him, o'ertook him in his flight,

And dragged him then unto my father's feet.

The sword was brandished over him already,

From the compassion of the blind old man

He won the gift of life for which he begged.

An oath of truce he swore, to ne'er return,

And he will keep it, he hath felt our arm.

WALTER FURST: 'Tis well, you have not put the stain of blood

On this unsullied triumph!

CHILDREN (hasten across the stage with the wreckage of the scaffold):

Freedom! Freedom!

(The horn of Uri is blown with might.)

WALTER FURST: See, what a festival!

The children will

Recall this day as late as in old age.

(Girls bring the hat carried on a pole, the whole stage is filled with

people.)

RUODI: Here is the hat, to which we had to bow.

BAUMGARTEN: Instruct us, what we ought to do with it.

WALTER FURST: God! Underneath this hat my grandson stood!

SEVERAL VOICES: Destroy the emblem of the tyrant's power!

Into the fire with it.

WALTER FURST: No, let it be preserved!

It had to serve as tool of tyranny,

'Twill be the lasting symbol of our freedom!

(The country people, men, women and children stand and sit upon the

beams of the shattered scaffold grouped around picturesquely in a

large half-circle.)

MELCHTAL: So stand we happ'ly now upon the wreckage

Of tyranny, and grandly is't fulfilled,

What we at Rutli swore, confederates.

WALTER FURST: The work hath been begun, but not completed.

We now need courage and firm unity,

For be assured, the King will not delay,

In taking vengeance for his Gov'rnor's death,

And bringing back by force the one expelled.

MELCHTAL: Let him march up with all his army's might,

If from within the enemy's dispelled,

We will engage the enemy outside.

RUODI: There are but few approaches to the land,

These we will cover with our very bodies.

BAUMGARTEN: We are united by eternal bonds,

And never shall his armies frighten us!

(ROSSELMANN and STAUFFACHER come.)

ROSSELMANN (entering): These are the fearful judgments of the Heaven.

COUNTRYMEN: What is the matter?

ROSSELMANN: In what times we live!

WALTER FURST: Say on, what is it? -- Ha, is't you, Lord Werner?

What bring you us?

COUNTRYMEN: What is it?

ROSSELMANN: Hear and marvel!

STAUFFACHER: From one great cause of fear are we set free --

ROSSELMANN: The Emp'ror hath been murdered.

WALTER FURST: Gracious God!

(Countrymen become riotous and throng around STAUFFACHER.)

ALL: He's murdered! What! The Emp'ror! Hark! The Emp'ror!

MELCHTAL: Not possible! Whence came this news to you?

STAUFFACHER: 'Tis true indeed.

Near Bruck King Albrecht fell

By an assassin's hand -- a trusted man,

Johannes Muller, brought it from Schaffhausen.

WALTER FURST: Who would have dared so horrible a deed?

STAUFFACHER: 'Tis made more horrible by him who did it.

It was his nephew, his own brother's child,

'Twas Duke Johann of Schwabia, who did it.

MELCHTAL: What drove him to this deed of patricide?

STAUFFACHER: The Emp'ror kept his patrimony back

Despite impatient importunities,

'Tis said, he never meant to grant it him,

But with a bishop's hat to pay him off.

However this may be-- the youth gave ear

To th' evil counsel of his friends in arms,

And with the noble Lord von Eschenbach,

Von Tegernfelden, von der Wart and Palm

He did resolve, since he could find no justice

To take revenge on him with his own hands.

WALTER FURST: O speak, how was this monstrous deed achieved?

STAUFFACHER: The King was riding down from Stein to Baden,

Toward Rheinfeld, where the court was held, to join,

With him the princes, Hans and Leopold,

And a large retinue of high-born lords.

And when they came unto the Reuss, where one

Can only cross upon a ferry boat,

There the assassins forced themselves on board,

That they detach the Emp'ror from his train.

Thereafter, as the prince rode hence across

A cultivated field -- 'neath which, 'tis said,

An old large city stood in heathen times --

The ancient Hapsburg fortress now in sight,

From whence the grandeur of his line proceeded

-- Duke Hans then thrusts a dagger in his throat,

Rudolf von Palm runs through him with his spear,

And Eschenbach then splits his head in two,

So that he sinks thereunder in his blood,

He's slain by his own kin, on his own land.

Upon the other shore they saw the deed,

Yet cut off by the stream they could do naught

But raise an unavailing cry of woe;

Yet by the wayside a poor woman sat,

And in her lap the Emp'ror bled to death.

MELCHTAL: So hath he only dug his early grave,

Who would insatiably have everything!

STAUFFACHER: A monstrous horror is abroad i' th' land,

All passes of the mountains are blockaded,

And each estate doth fortify its borders,

E'en ancient Zurich closes up its gates,

The which stood open thirty years, in fear

O' th' murderers and even more -- th' avengers.

For armed now with the imperial ban, the Queen

Of Hungary doth come, the stringent Agnes,

Who doth not know the gentleness of her

Frail sex, to venge her father's royal blood

Upon the murderers' entire line,

Upon their servants, children, children's children,

Yes even on the stones of their great castles.

She's sworn an oath, that she'll dispatch below

Whole generations to her father's grave,

To bathe herself in blood as in May dew.

MELCHTAL: Knows one, whereto the murderers have fled?

STAUFFACHER: They fled no sooner had the deed been done

Their separate ways upon five different routes

And parted, ne'er to see each other more--

'Tis said Duke Johann wanders in the mountains.

WALTER FURST: And thus the crime hath yielded them no fruit!

For vengeance yields no fruit! It is itself

The dreadful food it feeds on, its delight

Is murder, and its satisfaction horror.

STAUFFACHER: The murd'rers gain no profit from their crime,

But we shall pluck with unpolluted hands

The blessed fruit o' th' bloody wickedness.

For we are now relieved of a great fear,

The greatest foe of liberty is fallen,

And as it's rumored, that the crown will pass

From Hapsburg's house unto another line,

The Empire will assert electoral freedom.

WALTER FURST AND SEVERAL OTHERS: What have you heard?

STAUFFACHER: The Count of Luxemburg

Already hath been chosen by most votes.

WALTER FURST: 'Tis well, that we kept loyal to the Empire,

For there is cause of hope for justice now!

STAUFFACHER: The new lord will have need of valiant friends,

He'll be our shield 'gainst Austria's revenge.

(The countrymen embrace one another.)

(SACRISTAN with an imperial messenger.)

SACRISTAN: Here are the worthy leaders of the land.

ROSSELMANN AND MANY OTHERS:

Sacrist, what is't?

SACRISTAN: A courier brings this letter.

ALL (to WALTER FURST): Open and read it.

WALTER FURST: "To the honest men

Of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, Queen

Elizabeth bids grace and all good wishes."

MANY VOICES: What would the Queen?

Her reign is over now.

WALTER FURST: (reads): "In her great sorrow and her widowed grief,

Wherein the bloody passing of her lord

Hath left the Queen, she still remembers well

The ancient faith and love of Switzerland."

MELCHTAL: In her prosperity she's ne'er done that.

ROESSELMAN: Be still! Let's listen!

WALTER FURST (reads): "And she doth look unto this loyal people,

Assured that they will righteously abhor

The cursed perpetrators of this deed.

Therefore she doth expect from the three Cantons,

That they will never help the murderers,

But rather that they'll loyally assist,

To give them up to the avenger's hand,

Remembering the love and ancient favor,

Which they received from Rudolfs princely house."

(Signs of resentment among the countrymen.)

MANY VOICES: The love and favor!

STAUFFACHER: We have received the favor of the father,

But what have we to boast of from the son?

Hath he confirmed the charter of our freedom,

As 'fore him every Emperor had done?

Hath he passed judgments based on righteous judgment,

And lent to hard pressed innocence protection?

Had he but listened to the messenger,

That we had sent to him in our distress?

Not one of all these things had e'er the King

Performed for us, and had we not ourselves

Obtained our rights with our own valiant hand,

Our need would not have moved him -- Give him thanks?

No thanks hath he sown here within these vales.

He stood upon an eminence, he could

Have been a father to his people, yet

It pleased him, to provide but for his own,

Those whom he hath enriched, may cry for him!

WALTER FURST: We will not shout for joy o'er his demise,

Nor now recall to mind the suffered evil,

Far be't from us! Yet, that we shall avenge

The death o' th' King, who never did us good,

And those pursue, who never made us grieve,

That fits us not, and it will never suit us,

As love's a freely given offering,

So death absolves from all enforced duties, --

To him we have no further debt to pay.

MELCHTAL: And if the Queen laments within her chamber,

And blames the Heaven for her savage pain,

So see you here a people freed of fear,

To this same Heaven send their thankful prayers

-- He who will harvest tears, must first sow love.

(IMPERIAL MESSENGER exits.)

STAUFFACHER (to the people):

But where is Tell? Shall he alone be absent,

Who is the founder of our freedom? He

Hath done the most, endured the most severe.

Come all, now come, let's go unto his house,

And there acclaim the savior of us all.

(All exit.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

* SCENE II.

Entrance to TELL'S house. A fire burns on the hearth. The door standing

open shows into the outside. HEDWIG. WALTER and WILHELM.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

HEDWIG: Today your father comes.

Dear children, children!

He lives, is free and we are free and all!

And it's your father, who hath saved the land.

WALTER: And I have also been there with him, Mother!

One must name me as well. My father's shaft

Went closely by my life, and I have not

So much as trembled.

HEDWIG (embraces him): Yes, thou art restored

To me! Twice have I given birth to thee!

It is foreby -- I have you both now, both!

Twice suffered I the mother's grief for thee!

And your dear father comes again today!

(A monk appears at the entrance to the house.)

WILHELM: Look, Mother, look -- There stands a pious brother,

He surely will be asking us for alms.

HEDWIG: Lead him inside, that he may be refreshed,

And feel, that he is come to th' house of joy!

(Goes inside and comes back soon with a beaker.)

WILHELM (to the monk): Come in, good man. My mother will refresh you.

WALTER: Come in, rest up and go from here the stronger.

MONK (timorously looking around, with shattered features):

Where am I now? Pray tell me, in which land?

WALTER: Are you then lost, that you do not know that?

You are at Burglen, Lord, i' th' land of Uri,

Just where one enters in the Schachental.

MONK (to HEDWIG, who returns):

Are you alone? Or is your Lord at home?

HEDWIG: Soon I expect him -- what's it to you, man?

You do not look, as if you've brought aught good.

-- Whoe'er you are, you are in want, take that!

(Hands him the beaker.)

MONK: E'en as my yearning heart pines for refreshment,

I'll touch naught here, 'til you have promised me --

HEDWIG: Touch not my garment, step not near to me,

Stand far away; if I should listen to you.

MONK: Now by this fire, that flames hospitably,

And by your children's precious head, which I

Embrace --

(Seizes the boy.)

HEDWIG: Man, what is your intent? Stand back

From my dear children! -- You're no monk! You are

Not one! For peace should dwell within this habit,

But in your features peace doth not reside.

MONK: I am the most unfortunate of men.

HEDWIG: Unhappiness speaks forcefully to th' heart,

And yet your look ties up my inner soul.

WALTER (springing up):

Mother, here's father!

(Rushes out.)

HEDWIG: O my God!

(Wants to follow, trembles and stops.)

WILHELM (rushes after him): Here's Father!

WALTER (outside): Th'art here once more!

WILHELM (outside): O Father, my dear Father!

TELL (outside): Here am I once again -- Where is your Mother?

(Enters.)

WALTER: There at the door she stands and can no further,

So trembles she with terror and with joy.

TELL: O Hedwig, Hedwig! Mother of my children!

God's helped -- No tyrant shall divide us more.

HEDWIG (on his neck): O Tell! My Tell!

For thee what fear I've suffered!

(MONK becomes attentive.)

TELL: Forget it now and live with joy alone!

I am at home once more! This is my cottage!

I stand again on that which is mine own!

WILHELM: And yet where hast thou left thy crossbow, Father?

I see it not.

TELL: Thou wilt see it no more,

It is preserved now in a sacred place,

'Twill henceforth never serve the hunt again.

HEDWIG: O Tell! Tell!

(Steps back, releases his hand.)

TELL: What hath frightened thee, dear wife?

HEDWIG: How -- how com'st thou to me again? -- This hand

-- May I take hold of it? -- This hand -- O God!

TELL (heartily and courageously):

Hath you defended and the land delivered,

And I may raise it freely up to Heaven.

(Monk makes an hasty movement, he looks at him.)

Who is this brother here?

HEDWIG: Ah, I forgot him!

Speak thou with him, I shudder in his presence.

MONK (steps nearer): Are you the Tell, by whom the Gov'rnor fell?

TELL: Yes I am he, I hide it from no man.

MONK: You are the Tell! Ah, it's the hand of God,

The which hath led me underneath your roof.

TELL (measures him with his eyes):

You are no monk! Who are you?

MONK: You have slain

The Gov'rnor, who did you wrong -- I too

Have slain an enemy, who had denied

My rights -- He was your foe as well as mine

And I have freed the land of him.

TELL (starting back): You are

Oh horror! -- Children! Children, go inside.

Go in, dear wife! Go! Go! -- Unhappy man,

You would be --

HEDWIG: God, who is it?

TELL: Do not ask!

Away! Away! The children must not hear.

Go from the house-- Go far away -- Thou must

Not dwell beneath a single roof with him.

HEDWIG: Woe's me, what is this? Come!

(Goes with the children.)

TELL (to the monk): You are the Duke

Of Austria -- You are! And you have slain

The Emperor, your uncle and your lord.

JOHANNES PARRICIDA: He was the robber of my heritage.

TELL: Your uncle slain, your Emperor! And you

The earth still bears! The sun still shines on you!

PARRICIDA: Tell, listen to me, ere you --

TELL: Dripping with

The blood of patricide and Emp'ror's murder,

Dar'st thou to step into my stainless house,

Thou dar'st, to show thy face to a good man

And want the rights of hospitality?

PARRICIDA: From you I hoped that I would find compassion,

You too took vengeance on your foe.

TELL: Unhappy man!

Must thou confound ambition's bloody guilt

With what a father did in self defense?

Didst thou defend beloved heads of children?

Protect the sanctity o' th' hearth? Ward off

The most dreadful, the utmost from thine own? --

To th' Heaven lift I mine unsullied hands,

And curse thee and thine act -- I have avenged

The holiness of nature, which thou hast

Disgraced -- I have no part with thee -- For thou

Hast murdered, I've defended those most dear.

PARRICIDA: You cast me off, unsolaced, in despair?

TELL: A horror grips me, when I speak with thee.

Away! Pursue thy dreadful course, and leave

My cottage pure, where innocence resides.

PARRICIDA (turns to go): So can I, and so will I live no more!

TELL: And yet I've pity for thee -- God i' th' Heavens!

So young, of such a noble family,

Grandson of Rudolf, of my Lord and Emp'ror,

As fugitive from murder, at my threshold,

O' th' wretched man, imploring and despairing --

PARRICIDA: O, if you could but weep, then let my fate

Move you, it is an hideous one -- I am

A prince -- I was -- and I could have been happy,

If I had mastered my desires' impatience.

But envy gnawed upon my heart -- I saw

The youth of mine own cousin Leopold

Becrowned with honors and with land rewarded,

And me, who was of equal age with him,

Held down i' th' slavish status of a minor --

TELL: Unhappy man, well knew thine uncle thee,

When he refused to give thee lands and people!

Thou with thine hasty, savage insane acts

Hast horribly confirmed his wise resolve.

-- Where are the bloody helpers in thy murder?

PARRICIDA: Wherever the avenging spirits led them,

I have not seen them since the hapless deed.

TELL: Know'st thou, that thou art banned by law, that thou

To friends forbidden and to foes allowed?

PARRICIDA: Therefore avoid I every public road,

I venture not to knock at any cottage --

I turn my footsteps to the wilderness,

A terror to myself, I roam the mountains,

And shrink back shuddering before my self,

A brook shows me mine own unhappy image.

O felt you pity and humanity--

(Falls down before him.)

TELL (turning away): Stand up! Stand up!

PARRICIDA: Not, 'til you give the hand to me in help.

TELL: Can I help you? Can any man of sin?
Yet stand up now -- Whatever horror you've
Committed -- You're a man -- I am one too --
From Tell no man should part uncomforted --
What I can do, that will I do.

PARRICIDA (springing up and grasping his hand with vehemence): O Tell!
You rescue my poor soul from desperation.

TELL: Let go my hand -- You must away. You could
Not stay here undiscovered, could discovered
Not count on refuge-- Whither will you go?
Where hope you to find quiet?

PARRICIDA: Know I? Ah!

TELL: Hear, what God grants my heart -- You must away
To Italy and to Saint Peter's city,
There cast yourself at the Pope's feet, confess
To him your guilt and thus redeem your soul.

PARRICIDA: Will he not give me up to the avengers?

TELL: What he may do, accept it as from God.

PARRICIDA: How shall I come into that unknown land?
I'm unfamiliar with the way, dare not
To join my steps to those of travellers.

TELL: The way I will describe to you, mark well!
You must ascend, upstream along the Reuss,
Which from the mountain plunges wildly down --

PARRICIDA (terrified): See I the Reuss? It flows beside my deed.

TELL: The road goes through the gorge, and many crosses

Mark it, erected to the memory
O' th' trav'lers, buried by the avalanche.

PARRICIDA: I have no fear of nature's terrors, if
I tame the savage torments of my heart.

TELL: Before each cross fall down and expiate
Your guilt with ardent tears of penitence --
And are you safely through the frightful pass,
And if the mountain doth not send its snowdrifts,
Down here upon you from the frozen ridge,
So come you to the bridge, which hangs in spray.
If it doth not cave in beneath your guilt,
If you have left it safely to your rear,
So will a gloomy rocky gate burst open,
No day hath shone on it -- proceed therethrough,
It leads you to a cheerful vale of joy --
Yet must you hurry on with rapid steps,
You may not tarry, where'er peace resides.

PARRICIDA: O Rudolf! Rudolf! Royal ancestor!
o comes thy grandson on thine Empire's soil!
TELL: So climbing always, come you to the heights
O' th' Gotthards, where th' eternal lakes are found,
Which from the streams of heaven fill themselves.
There take departure from the German earth,
Another stream with cheerful course leads you
Down into Italy, your promised land --

(One hears the cowherd's dance song blown from many Alpine horns.)
But I hear voices. Hence!

HEDWIG (hurries in): Where art thou, Tell?
My father comes! All the confederates
Approach in gay procession --

PARRICIDA (covers himself): Woe is me!
I may not tarry midst this happiness.

TELL: Go now, dear wife. And freshen up this man,
Load presents richly on him, for his way
Is far and he will not find any quarters.
Hurry! They near.

HEDWIG: Who is it?

TELL: Ask me not!
And when he leaves, so turn thine eyes away,
That they see not, upon which road he travels!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

* SCENE III. The Final Scene

PARRICIDA goes toward TELL with an hasty movement, but the latter beckons him with the hand and goes. When both have left to different sides, the scene changes and one sees in the whole valley bottom in front of TELL'S dwelling, along with the hills, which enclose it, occupied by countrymen, who are grouped as a whole. Others are coming over a high bridge, which leads over the Schachen. WALTER FURST with both boys, MELCHTAL and STAUFFACHER come forward, others press after them; as TELL steps out, all receive him with loud jubilation.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

ALL: May Tell live long! the archer and the savior!
(Whilst the foremost press around TELL and embrace him, RUDENZ and

BERTA also appear, the former embracing the countrymen, the latter

HEDWIG. The music from the mountain accompanies this mute scene. Whe
it ends, BERTA steps into the midst of the people.)

BERTA: My countrymen! Confederates! Take m
Into your league, as the first happy woman,
Who found protection in this land of freedom.
Into your valiant hands I lay my rights,
Will you protect me as your citizen?

COUNTRYMEN: That we will do with life and property.

BERTA: 'Tis well, so to this youth I give my hand,
A free Swiss woman to this free Swiss man!

RUDENZ: And I proclaim that all my serfs are free.
(Whilst the music strikes up anew, the curtain falls.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The End.

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